COURSEs

base course

A course of 8 lessons takes 4 hours. It can be divided into four 60 minutes classes or three 1 hour and 20 minutes classes – either weekly or over a weekend or even as a half-day workshop. Because of the ChiRunning® principle of gradual progress, we recommend going slow, that is we suggest you try to allow some time between lessons.

After the end of the course students get a booklet with exercises to work further on your technique and a written personal recommendations for short- and midterm practice to improve your running form and training regimen.

All programs are limited to 8 students which guarantees a high level of personal attention.

At the beginning we film all students and discuss differences between ChiRunning® and conventional running (lesson 1). It is followed by the crucial lesson on posture, the anatomy-friendly set up of your body (lesson 2), both in running or walking and your everyday life, too.

 Next two lessons are dedicated to relaxation of your legs and learning to make use of gravity for an easy and energy-efficient movement (lesson 3). It results in using your legs only for support, while the propulsion is generated by gravity. This technical base is learned at very slow walking speed, and along the way you learn the ChiWalking® technique, too (lesson 4).

Before transition to running (lesson 6) we examine the arm work (lesson 5). Because of correct posture and lean forward – for taking advantage of gravity as a propulsion source – the key arm and leg swing is to the rear. It is necessary to balance the body's forward lean. What may seem unusual at first, is actually a way to easy and economical movement. And in practice it is much easier than in theory :)

 The conclusion of the Base Course is an introduction to different running (and depending on students' interest walking) speeds. You will learn to use 4 gears (lesson 7), and in the final lesson 8 you will be introduced to an extensive list of focuses, technical exercises for continuous improvement of your ChiRunning® and ChiWalking® skills.

advanced course

A course of 8 lessons takes 4 hours. It can be divided into four 60 minutes classes or three 1 hour and 20 minutes classes – either weekly or over a weekend or even as a half-day workshop. Because of the ChiRunning® principle of gradual progress, we recommend going slow, that is we suggest you try to allow some time between lessons.

After the end of the course students get a booklet with additional exercises to work further on your technique and a written personal recommendations for short- and midterm practice to improve your running form and training regimen.

All programs are limited to 8 students which guarantees a high level of personal attention.

Advanced Course begins with introduction to cadence (lesson 9), another important difference between ChiRunning® and ChiWalking®. Cadence, a number of steps you take in a minute, stays the same in running as your speed changes, but in walking it changes with speed. You will also learn the use of metronome as a precision exercise tool, and then we will show you the most efficient breathing technique (lesson 10).

Running gentle (»runnable«) and steep hills (lesson 11) covers more than a single lesson, because it brings together everything you will have learnt by now. It is also a great opportunity for practicing pelvic rotation (lesson 12), a tool for lengthening your stride and thus increasing your speed. And you can look forward to breaking many ChiRunning® rules required by steep hills.

An efficient practice session starts by warming-up exercises called body looseners, and ends by targeted stretches (lesson 13). Most would be familiar to you, but we point out the importance of going through the whole set every time. Then we kick in the turbo charge with the Y'Chi tool (lesson 14) and other techniques for fighting fatigue and energy depletion.

Advanced course concludes with another filming of students who can monitor their progress and get an idea of how to proceed (lesson 15). To assist you in your future practice we make you run all-out for 6 minutes (a basis for a very efficient speed exercise) which will serve as a benchmark for your conditioning and technical progress. Finally we discuss your way forward and strongly encourage a gradual progression (lesson 16) which means work on form first, then distance, and finally speed.

specialized and race programs

We are happy to provide personalized training programs for clients who have taken both base and advanced courses and decide to further their immersion in ChiRunning.